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tv   ABC World News Now  ABC  July 23, 2010 3:05am-4:30am EDT

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happy birthday! ♪ you make me feel so young. ♪ you make me feel so spring has sprung ♪
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you're not fooling anybody, you know. in afghanistan, and providing al qaeda with details about new york's rail system. many, including chesser, allegedly used the internet to contact radicals like anwar al awlaki, who has been tied to the ft. hood massacre and the failed christmas day and times square bombings. >> i think this is what we have feared for a very long time, that finally the ideology of radical islam is effectively reaching into the united states to disaffected people here. over the internet and through other ways. >> reporter: authorities are in a race against time to find these domestic radicals before there's a successful attack here at home. pierre thomas, abc news, washington. white house pay czar ken feinberg releases his report on executive pay today. it concludes that u.s. banks paid out $1.5 billion in unwarranted bonuses just as the
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financial system was collapsing. the report names 17 companies that made huge payouts immediately after receiving billions in taxpayer aid, with citigroup as the worst offender. most of the companies have paid back the bailout money so they have no obligation to reimburse the government. with that here's a look at your weather now. tropical storm bonnie the big story today, expected to cross florida this afternoon with heavy rains and 45-mile-an-hour winds. monsoon rains mean flash flood dangers for arizona and new mexico. and powerful winds and hail are likely for the dakotas and iowa. >> expect hot weather in the mid-atlantic and south. 97 degrees in baltimore. 98 in atlanta. 96 in new orleans. cooler in the northeast. 86 here in boston. nice day for us. 80 in boston. colorado springs should reach 96. a woman visiting yellowstone national park got a painful lesson about respecting nature. kathy hayes and a friend followed a bison leaving a parking lot monday. an object suddenly hit the
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bison, who charged and flipped hayes. >> oh my word. she says someone standing nearby probably threw the object. hayes escaped with bruises, luckily. she says she now understands the warning signs not to get too close to the animals. i feel like this is a video everyone should have to watch before they go into these parks. >> let nature do its thing. just stand back. >> the charging bison is not the way to end the day. >> no, no, no. >> we'll be right back. [ powder cleaner ] what? mr. clean magic eraser bath scrubber? quick question... whatdoes she see in him? well, his crubbing surface is 30% larger thse days. [ spray bottle ] yea, hat was rhetorical. [ liquid cleaner ] one more thing, he cleans thre times more soap scum per swipe than you, soha. see, i don't think you know hat rhetorical means. oh look at this, this is where he says "i'm mr. clean,
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as i move my ipad, social networking has changed many things in our world including polit politics. in the past the politicians held the power then they went to the people. >> now thanks to sites like facebook the people hold the power. here's bill weir with a look at the marriage of politics and the internet. >> thank you. >> reporter: the year was 2000.
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it was john mccain who first tried a radical experiment. a website to accept political donations. a decade later, internet social media has completely changed the political sphere. >> who is barack obama? the answer is right there on my facebook page. >> reporter: 76% of congress uses social media now, and well over half have facebook pages. but while politicians try to harness the power of a few million virtual friends it is the citizen who has the most to gain in this brave new world. >> nine out of ten videos watched during the 2008 presidential campaign that mentioned obama and mccain were produced by citizens trying to influence each other. so the last people to arrive at the party are the politicians themselves. >> reporter: sparked by a single angry voice, facebook can be a lever of revolution. we've seen it in iran and myanmar. when guerillas in colombia let a little boy die in captivity, on
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is car morales poured his outrage into a facebook page. >> just today we gathered the support of more than 10,000 followers. >> reporter: just a month later, 12 million people took to the streets in solidarity in cities around the world. greg newmart believes this is just the beginning. best known as the founder of craigslist he also uses social media to seek justice for veterans and hold officials accountable. what is it that you hope to accomplish when you sit down at your computer? >> a guy like me has to stand up and work with other people to get the word out. to connect people in the millions and over a 20-year period. i'm going to connect people in the billions. >> reporter: it's been said all politics is local. now it seems all politics is viral. bill weir, abc news, san francisco. >> i was actually just reading an article the other day talking about the notion of how the internet has basically made lying obsolete. because anything that you say,
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especially politicians -- >> can be checked. >> exactly, or someone's going to find a video of what you said in the past that you seem to have forgotten. >> ask shirley sherrod. >> exactly. >> seeing on facebook, we broke a big milestone today. more than 18,000 folks in the "world news now" facebook page. >> they like us, they really like us. >> and they like willis, they want him to have his own page, everyone wants to know the guy who laughs in the background. we'll try to talk him into it. we'll be right back. >> just kidding, willis.
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steve carell and paul rudd star in the new comedy "dinner for schmucks." the plot is about a competition to bring the weirdest person to a dinner party. >> peter traverse, "rolling stone" movie critic and host of abc news now's "popcorn" sat down with the actors from the movie. >> where are you from? >> we are from switzerland. >> we're going to focus on business -- >> switzerland, i love
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switzerland, it is one of my favorite countries. i love your army knives with the toothpicks and your cheese. does the cheese come out of the cow with the holes? our countries are not enemies, they are friends. we are friends. >> you have been to switzerland? >> no, but i have a friend who drives a volvo. >> steve carell, paul rudd. there they are. it's smuk-a-rama. even though this movie which i'll let you talk about a little bit is called "dinner for schmucks" i think both of your characters have moments of schmuckitu did. e. >> i think we're both pretty schmucky. >> why were you both cast in this? did the director see something of schmuckitude in body of you? >> he certainly did in paul. i think we all do in paul. >> i think it's really apparent.
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>> paul just turns his head side days and he's a schmuck. >> more so with the weird or less so with the weird. >> i would say -- the beard adds a different sort of level to it. >> changes the flavor of schmuckiness. beard flavor. which has a little bit of a sour cream taste to it. >> it smells like bird. >> okay. it's called "dinner for schmucks." steve, who do you play in this? >> i play a guy named barry speck. i like to put it that he lives on the fringe. he's not -- he's a guy. >> your guy is just, what, he's in l.a. and he's -- >> i'm a guy who works for this company and -- >> this company? very specific. >> right. it's fender financial. >> okay. >> we're all familiar with fender financial. >> yeah. >> kind of a company that purchases other companies that are dying, they strip them down and sell off the parts. but i have a chance to move up
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in the company which i really want to do. part of the deal, kind of like the last test, is this dinner that exists that i get invited to, kind of the top brass of the company partake in. and in that dinner, each of them finds an interesting person to invite to dinner. an interesting person kind of being a euphemism for a deranged schmuck. i'm a little morally opposed to it but i still want to get ahead with work. i hit steve in my car as he runs out in the road to pick up a dead mouse to include in his art. >> steve is spending his career now working with the french. you know, i mean this was a french film. >> you've got this! >> i wanted to ask you, can you do a short scene from "dinner
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for schmucks" that this audience in america won't see, in french, for sinus. >> sure. [ speaking foreign language ] >> that was basically it. >> what do you like about paul, and what really is annoying about him? >> you know, you look for a dark side in people, you look for what is it? there's got to be something, there's got to be a quirk, there's got to be -- i want to see him on a bad day, i want to see him lose it. like get mad. and i think what's maybe off-putting is the fact that you don't see that with him. you don't see -- either he's an incredibly good, consistent actor or he's truly a good guy. i think he's acting. >> what would you sound like furious?
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>> why do you ask? >> because i want to know. y you get really quiet. >> i don't even know how to do it. >> what do you sound like? >> aaaaargh! i'm so mad at you! >> paul knows that i ask everybody here whether you're clint eastwood, to sing, something that you can do together. >> do you want to do a row, row, row your boat in the round? >> all right. ♪ row, row, row your boat gently down the stream ♪ herrily her ily herrily life is but a dream ♪ ♪ row, row, row your boat gently down the stream ♪ ♪ herrily merrily merrily life is but a dream ♪ >> maybe i won't go see it. when we come back it's time
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get lunesta for a co-pay as low as zero dollars at lunesta.com discover a restful lunesta night. "world news now" delivers your "morning papers." >> controversy to address off the top. vinita. >> i fought it as much as i could, you know i wanted that back seat. people on facebook started saying, is she pregnant and hiding behind so we don't know? it was time to come to the front seat. i'm not pregnant, sorry mom and dad, not yet. >> cleared that all up. this may not be a story for animal lovers but apparently this company called, what is it, brew dogs, they've created this end of history ale. they've created the world's strongest beer at 55% alcohol volume. there's a catch. check out the picture. they put it inside dead animals. they put it -- they made 12 bottles of this stuff, they put
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it inside seven stoats, four crows, one hare. that's how they're going to sell it. animal rights folks are not happy about this. but this is what this company has done. it's about this special ale. 55%, that ain't bad. >> that's really, really unpleasant. >> would you drink that? >> no, would you? no. >> try it, yeah. >> there's so many questions about how that's stuffed in there also. someone's calling, they hate this story so much. >> if that's not unappetizing enough, these are road kill. they weren't killed for the purpose of the beer, they're road kill. >> all right, it's time for the friday polka. >> hey, news got you down? come, on let's polka. ♪ politics and foreign wars, all the weather all the scores ♪ ♪ that's the world news polka ♪ business news from tokyo, stuff you saw on koppel's show ♪ ♪ that's the world news polka ♪ it's late at night you're wide awake and you're not wearing pants ♪
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♪ so grab your "world news now" mug and everybody dance ♪ ♪ have some fun, be a pal, every anchor guy and gal ♪ ♪ do the world news polka come on get up! ♪ ♪ that's the world news polka insomniacs only! ♪ ♪ that's the world news polka ♪ who cares what the network thinks or the sponsors too ♪ ♪ and if your neighbors call the cops here's all you have to do ♪ ♪ when they yell it's half past three tell them, hey, it's news to me ♪ ♪ that's the world news polka snows they make us work the graveyard shift that's why we go for broke ♪ ♪ so why not tune in abc and join our little joke ♪ ♪ five whole days every week we're here with our tongue in cheek ♪ ♪ that's the world news polka ♪ do the world news polka
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gee, t ♪
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applause evacuation order. ships over the crippled oil well are heading to port as the tropical storm bears down. >> the winds are going to come out of the southeast to east. >> it could be weeks before work at the well site begins again. a lethal combination in russia. blistering heat and too much booze are making for a particularly deadly summer. and, a prime space on capitol hill. >> you no longer have access to a free spot if you're a registered lobbyist, right? >> who owns this dust-covered vehicle and why has it been there for years? it's friday, july 23rd. >> from abc news, this is "world news now." >> we're not just celebrating because it's friday, we're doing
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a segment on really cool toys. >> we've got bubbles, guns, all kinds of good stuff. >> great games for little kids, also perhaps good for adults. with some cocktails. >> especially on a friday. welcome to black and gray day today. >> i got the memo. thanks for letting me know what to wear. good morning and thanks for being with us on this friday. i'm vinita nair. >> i'm rob nelson. to the news now. dozens of ships are evacuating the oil spill site in the gulf this morning as worries mount over tropical storm bonnie. >> the storm is tracking on a course which could take it over the area within a day. t.j. winick joins us with more on the latest setback. t.j.? >> reporter: good morning, rob and vinita. with the storm expected to enter the gulf later today, all operations at the spill site are at a standstill. the storm that could become hurricane bonnie is churning its way through the dominican republic, haiti, and puerto rico. it's expected to track into the gulf of mexico and the site of the bp oil spill. >> as the storm approaches the spill site, the winds are going to come out of the southeast to east and drive some of the oil
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into the shoreline of louisiana. >> reporter: and so louisiana governor bobby jindal has declared a state of emergency. bp has already evacuated nonessential workers from eight other rigs in the gulf. boom that has protected the fragile coast from oil is also being moved inland. >> break the anchors and pull it out, more than anything it will tear it up. once it gets torn up it's useless. >> reporter: bp's chief operating officer toured one of the ships that's been operating the cameras and robots around the containment cap. >> the vessels that operate these rovs, robotic submarines, are some of the last to leave. >> reporter: no one will know if the containment is still working or if oil is pouring unchecked into the gulf. the plan now is to leave the containment cap on. >> we are prepared to leave the well unattended during this particular event. >> reporter: due to the storm drilling on the relief wells has already been suspended just days before connecting with the damaged well. rob and vinita? commercial and recreational fishing is being allowed again in roughly one-third of the gulf
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waters the government had closed. and shrimp season is opening in mobile bay after a two-month delay. many of the shrimpers spent yesterday getting their boats ready for action. repeated tests have shown no oil in that area. south florida is already feeling the effects of tropical storm bonnie with high winds and heavy rain. >> amy aaronson of accuweather.com joins us now with more on the track of the storm. amy? >> good morning, rob and vinita. it is official. bonnie has been born as a tropical storm. now moving west-northwestward at 10 to 15 miles per hour with sustained wind gusts up to 40 miles per hour. now already bonnie has unleashed its heavy rains across the bahamas and today it's headed for the sunshine state. it won't make landfall until tonight. already throughout the day we're talking heavy rain in places like miami, naples. that means tropical downpours for the southern third of the sunshine state. locally we could be talking 2 to 4 inches of rain, up to 6 inches of rain in some locations. not only are we talking heavy rain here, we're also talking tropical storm force winds.
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that means wind gusts up to 40 miles per hour. as we continue to track bonnie as we head into the weekend it is expected to move into the gulf of mexico here and that does pose a concern for the oil spill region. reaching that region late saturday, heading into your sunday. so let's take a look at the worst-case scenario. as bonnie reaches the region as a tropical storm, it is going to push the oil to the marshlands of louisiana. now back to you, rob and vinita. >> all right, thanks. here's a look at the rest of your weather. the dakotas, nebraska and iowa could get 80-mile-an-hour winds and golf ball-sized hail with rains stretching east to new york. flooding is possible in wisconsin and michigan and possible heavy rain in south texas. >> atlanta will be hotlanta today, 98 degrees. 97 in baltimore. hot around the great lakes. 84 in chicago and indianapolis. 93 in detroit. dallas will be 96. phoenix a relatively cool 98, out of the triple digits in phoenix. >> winter. and in other news now, fired agriculture department employee shirley sherrod got a call from president obama.
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it was an emotional moment for the black woman falsely accused of racism and the first black president. jake tapper has that story. >> reporter: president obama told shirley sherrod he was sorry. >> he expressed his apologies for the events of the last several days. >> reporter: it was an apology that sherrod accepted and one she felt she was due after this trying ordeal. as she said on "good morning america" -- >> to have people think that i was a racist, someone who's worked against racism all of my life, really, really hurt. >> reporter: after all, the story she had originally told in that speech that was unfairly edited, was about her father being killed by a white man in the jim crow south during her teens and how she overcame her prejudice. aides to secretary of agriculture tom vilsack e-mailed sherrod details about a new job offer. as she told the women of "the view." >> he mentioned the position at usda, in the office of outreach,
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that would deal with the issues of discrimination in the agency. and i said to him, i need time to think about this. >> reporter: the white house has been eager to put this issue to rest. twice white house operators tried to reach sherrod on behalf of the president. but -- >> the mailbox belonging to shirley sherrod is full and cannot accept new messages at this time. >> reporter: white house officials tried again. finally the two connected. by then the president had read the full transcript of her speech in which she described overcoming her own biases, a subject the president told her he had written about in his memoir, "dreams from my father." sherrod told reporters she is not yet sure she is going to accept that job. this has been a whirlwind, she needs some down time, she has yet to see the offer in writing. jake tapper, abc news, the white house. a congressional panel has charged new york democrat charles rangel with violating house rules. their two-year investigation centered on his real estate holdings, fund-raising and
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financial disclosure. rangel gave up leadership of the house ways and means committee in march because of a separate ethics issue. he says he welcomes the chance to prove his innocence at last. >> i feel extraordinarily good that my supporters over 40 years will be able to evaluate what they have come up with. >> specific charges against rangel will be revealed at a public hearing on thursday. an openly gay army officer is calling his discharge from the military infuriating and painful. lieutenant dan choi, veteran of the iraq war, announced yesterday he was discharged by the california army national guard. he disclosed last year that he's gay and then protested the military's don't ask, don't tell policy outside the white house in march. that policy requires openly gay personnel to be discharged, though efforts are under way now to repeal it. white house pay czar ken feinberg releases his report on executive pay today. it concludes u.s. banks paid out $1.5 billion in unwarranted
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bonuses as the financial system was collapsing. the report named 17 companies that made huge payouts immediately after receiving billions in taxpayer aid with citigroup as the worst offender. most of the companies have paid the bailout money back and so have no obligation to reimburse the government. those big rocks at stonehenge are finding out they're not the only circle in town. archaeologists say they've found a second circular structure a few hundred yards away from britain's most famous rocks. >> there's speculation that it may have been the foundation of a wooden version of stonehenge, maybe even a tomb. stonehenge is believed to be 3,500 years old. scientists say the newly discovered structures appear to be just as ancient. >> i had to do a stonehenge recap lesson. apparently it's all a burial ground around that area, which is interesting. >> yes. now we have one in wood as well. >> yes, we do. >> we'll be right back with more "world news now."
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you go next if you had a hóhere would hoveround power chair? the statue of liberty? the grand canyon? it's all possible ith a hoveround., tom: hi i'm tom kruse, inventor rand founder of hoveround., when we say you're free to see the world, we mean it. call today and get a free overound information kit, that includes a video and full color brochure. dennis celorie: "it's by far the best chair i've ever owned." terri: "last year, 9 out of 10 people got their hoveround for "little or no money."
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every cut. every time. everywhere. just days before the u.s. and south korea hold major joint military exercises, north korea has warned them to cancel any such plans. >> the exercise has come on the heels of secretary of state clinton's visit to south korea where she announced new sanctions against the north. the communist regime is also demanding those sanctions be dropped as well. the u.s. is ignoring both those warnings. in russia they are suffering from a summer heat wave just like the ones we've been seeing. just like us they're looking for ways to beat all that heat. >> that has led many russians to the beach. unfortunately it has also led to a record number of drowning deaths. alex marquardt has more from moscow. >> reporter: for almost a month, scenes like this have played out across russia. scorching temperatures from a ferocious heat wave, sending russians looking for any relief they can find.
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farmers have been forced to harvest the crops they still have at night, as they suffer the worst drought in over a century. the peat bogs around moscow are burning. in the far east russians are sunbathing on glaciers. with temperatures around 95 degrees, the animals at the moscow zoo are wilting as well. polar bears splayed out in the shade. fake snow being pumped into their pen. it's not bearable to be in moscow, says this man. it's too hot. the heat has russians flocking to water to stay cool, like at this beach outside of moscow. but the result has been hundreds of russians drowning every week. most, according to officials, were drunk. rescuers patrol the moscow river, warning swimmers to stay close to shore. people don't follow the rules and swim in places they aren't allowed, this rescuer told us. people overestimate their strength when they're drunk. beer and other alcohol are a common sight at russia's swimming holes, contributing to disturbing statistics.
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wednesday alone there were 51 drowning deaths, bringing the total for july to almost 800. in june, more than 1,200 people drowned. those numbers show no signs of slowing down. meteorologists say this week could get even hotter. the heat will continue until at least the end of the month. alex marquardt, abc news, moscow. >> you know, there is one solution for all this heat outdoors and that is, stay inside and play with games. coming up, we'll have some summer fun for the entire family. i shouldn't do both hands, too hard. the toy insider mom is here with the best toys of summer. you're watching "world news now."
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welcome back. it is summertime, so with the kids out of school many parents are looking for fun ways to keep the kids entertained. joining me for a look at some of the best toys for kids and the whole family is toy insider mom laurie shack. thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> i love this first group of toys because it's all about the movie. >> "toy story 3," the hottest
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movie this summer. here's a way to take our favorite toys and bring them into kids' houses and homes so they can play with them. all different price ranges. from $9.99 for mrs. and mrs. potato head all the way up to the ultimate buzz lightyear, $79.99. great lego play in the middle so we can build our own screen sets. i'm going to talk about our favorites which is buzz and woody. so before i start buzz because he does tend to take over, he does everything. voice command, remote control, he's programmable. he is just very cool. i'll let you see. >> come in, star command, do you read me? >> wow, he just kind of takes over. >> he does take over. i can do his remote control. i could make him walk. so there's plenty of things that buzz does. >> woody also quickly brings his own technology too. >> he does. classic. >> i'd like to join your posse, boys, but first i'm going to sing a little song. wait just a second. >> hat technology. >> something's missing. my hat!
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>> if i put it on, he knows he's got it back. >> let's talk about this one. it's a lot more active. it's twister. updated twister. >> twister hoopla. this is really great. we've turned them into rings. there's five games in here. we're going to play twister glue. regular spin board. i spin and it ends up on the blue where i have to put my elbow against your elbow. >> okay. >> i'm going to spin the next spin for you. and it's red. and it's my knee against your elbow. >> oh, wow. >> so you can see the point of this. >> this is going to be -- a couple of cocktails and this game. we're moving into the preschool. >> this is active and this is for everyone. and yes, so this is flipper frenzy, preschool. and the point of this game is the flipper frenzy, the shark, will crawl out for the preschooler, either the sea turtle or tea or green, and the kids are running around the room
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because they're scattered and they have to listen and scoop it up. >> they're learning the animals which is great. >> they learn the shapes and they learn to listen. it's a great active game. >> as they get older they have the numbers one? >> yes, this is numbers and it's all about maths. it's the same kind of play, running around, listening, learning your math skills. >> who could not mention these, they're so cute. >> bubble dudes. they're great. and they don't spill. >> very nice report. >> you take them everywhere. >> let's talk about family games. because i think a lot of houses have a family game night. >> it's a great thing, you get together, it's an affordable way to have a great time with your family, with your friends. so this is a lot of fun. this is called bubble talk. we're going to play a quick round of bubble talk. there's lots of cards in there and i picked one of the ones i think is really silly, all right? >> okay. >> what happens is we each have cards. you're going to pick one. i'm going to pick one. we'll just pretend we have a judge. >> okay. >> okay? so put one down. and i will read them. this one says, this is the most excitement i've had in months.
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>> okay. >> so that would be one card. this one says, this better help my red go away. clearly that would be the winner. >> that's you play? pick a caption- >> whoever the judge thinks is the best one wins and everyone gets a turn to be judge. >> these are games people are more familiar with. this is a sort of blocking game. >> this is a blocking game, a brand-new strategy game. the goal is to make a group and keep it connected. you want just one group on this or two groups and what happens is your opponent is going to try to block and capture you. it's a strategy game. it's a lot of fun. >> let's talk about these last two quickly. >> rummikub has been a classic for a long time. instead of the tiles we have a card game for kids and we have a junior version. you're looking at the disney junior version, it's still about runs and groups and putting characters together and numbers together. then you're looking at the monopoly 75th anniversary edition. can you believe it? >> the 3d version. >> you actually build the whole game set, and you can build it different ways. you can play in 30, 60 or 90 minutes. instead of just houses and
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hotels you're building industrial parks and bridges and schools. it's a lot of fun. >> wonderful toys for summer. laurie shack, our toy insider mom, thanks for coming by. people want to know about these? they go to which website? >> they can go to thebigtoybook.com. >> logon, find out everything. >> find out everything. >> let's go ahead and let him steal the show. he did so much for us already. this is his rumba, right? >> especially if you've seen the movie. give him one second and he's going to take it away. there he goes! >> the best way to end a toy segment we could think of. laurie, it was really a pleasure. thank you for some wonderful toys. >> thank you so much. if you fight to sleep in the middle of the night,
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call this toll-free number now. and finally this half hour, a congressional parking mystery. it seems for years a volkswagen has been parked and not moved in a lot that's reserved only for members of congress. >> so some wondered who is the mysterious vw owner and why did they abandon their car? john karl went snooping for answers. >> reporter: a good parking spot in washington is hard to come by. and expensive. in terms of parking this is some of the most prime real estate in all of washington, d.c. and here a car that has occupied a space not far from the capitol building itself.
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it's been here, abandoned, for nearly four years. the car has clearly seen better days. covered with dust. some cobwebs. that's a little disgusting. who does it belong to? there are a couple of hints. there's a washington and jefferson sticker here. a republican. well, it's got a george w. bush campaign sticker. a pennsylvania license plate. an expired permit from the 109th congress, voted out in 2006. >> the gentlelady from pennsylvania miss hart. >> reporter: it all seems to point to melissa hart, a former republican congresswoman who was defeated four years ago. members of congress have free parking, that's one of the perks. it's a perk they keep even when they leave congress. they can still park for free here, unless they become registered lobbyists. which she is. we gave the former congresswoman a call. yeah, hi, congresswoman hart, this is jonathan karl at abc news, how are you? just curious about the car.
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she confirmed the car is hers. the congressional rules say you no longer have access to a free spot if you're a registered lobbyist, right? she told us she didn't know that, but now that she does, she'll donate the car to charity. though if, like the rest of us, she had to pay for a space like this, the tab for the past four years, about $23,000. jonathan karl, abc news, capitol hill. >> it's sort of hard to miss some of the messages. scrawled on that little car. like i wish my wife was as dirty as this car. >> that's my favorite. i like that. i couldn't get from the story why she left it there four years. what was the deal? >> sounds like she did just forget. i don't know how you forget about a car. but i guess the good news, the upside of this story is now someone's going to get it through a donation process. >> a silver lining in every story, i guess. hopefully they'll wash it. >> we'll be back with more news, stick around. ♪
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the ships over the oil well in the gulf are now heading back to port because tropical storm bonnie is on the way. >> what we're very worried about is the oil getting pushed farther inland along the coast. then, those genetic tests that promise to tell you about your future. >> for prostate cancer i had different companies tell me i was a below average, average, and above average risks. >> the results of an undercover sting operation coming up. and, band-aid fix. two guys come up with an idea poking fun at iphone 4's poor reception. but they never thought it would stick like this. it's friday, july 23rd. >> from abc news, this is "world news now." >> we're hearing more and more
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about this death grip if you've been following any of the news out of iphone, that this death grip is what canceled the antenna. for receiving. >> giving out the bumpers to those customers now, telling them that will improve the signal so your calls don't get dropped. >> you'd think that would make me want an iphone 4 less yet it doesn't. >> really? >> i think i represent the majority if you look at their sales. people are buying the iphone 4, and of course the ipad as well which we have also. we'll be using that throughout the morning because we have a new app this morning. >> the spinning globe which everyone loves. good morning, i'm rob nelson. >> i'm vinita nair. key ships stationed over the bp oil well in the gulf are heading to port this morning ahead of tropical storm bonnie. >> the storm could mean a two-week setback in plugging that leak for good. a state of emergency has already been declared in louisiana. matt gutman reports now from new orleans. >> reporter: with this storm barreling in, all operations at the spill site at a standstill. and evacuations began. nonessential workers already shipped to shore. drilling on the relief well suspended.
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in place of the drilling that was to kill the well as early as next week, now a pair of plugs. on land, essential equipment and personnel moving to higher ground. bp's even set up a hurricane hotline. >> the bp severe weather assessment team continues to monitor -- >> reporter: but some good news. that leaky stacking cap, holding in the oil for seven days now, will stay sealed. officials say it's strong enough to hold even if ships have to leave this site and leave it unmonitored for up to four days. this storm is carving a clear path, churning directly toward the spill site. over the next two days a straight shot over the warm gulf waters that can supercharge a tropical depression into a hurricane. >> as the storm approaches the spill site the winds are going to come out of the southeast to east and drive some of the oil into the shoreline of louisiana. >> reporter: that's especially dangerous as governor bobby jindal says most of the oil still up there, up to 70 million gallons, remained submerged. are you concerned this hurricane or tropical storm is going to whip all of that up?
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>> one of the things a storm can do is pick up some of that oil and redeposit it on our coast, inside of our wetlands. what we're very worried about is the oil getting farther inland along the coast. >> reporter: tropical storm bonnie could hit this part of the gulf as early as sunday morning. local residents here are concerned not only about oil washing into their yards and into their basement, but about their future here. matt gutman, abc news, new orleans. south florida is bracing for a day of strong winds and heavy rain as bonnie approaches. >> with more now on the track of the storm, we're joined by amy aaronson of accuweather.com. hi, amy. >> good morning, rob and vinita. it is official. bonnie has been officially named a tropical storm. moving west-northwestward at 10 to 14 miles per hour currently with sustained wind gusts up to 40 miles per hour. already unleashed heavy rains across the bahamas. today it's headed for the sunshine state. it won't make landfall until tonight. but already throughout the day, we're talking heavy rain in places like miami, naples. tropical downpours in store for the southern third of the sunshine state.
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locally we could see between 2 to 4 inches of rain to 6 inches of rain in some locations. not only are we talking heavy rain, we're also talking tropical force winds. this means wind gusts up to 40 miles per hour in some locations, gusts higher than that. here it is expected to track its way to the gulf of mexico and this does pose a threat on the oil spill region, arriving there late saturday, heading into your sunday morning. let's take a look at the worst-case scenario. if bonnie reaches the region as a tropical storm it's going to push the oil onshore into the mississippi delta of louisiana. now back to you, rob and vinita. here's a look at the rest of your weather. monsoon storms could bring heavy rains and flash floods to arizona and new mexico. the upper plains could expect 80-mile-an-hour winds and golf ball-sized hail. rain and floods possible around the great lakes. hot, dry weather means dangerous fire conditions for much of the rockies. >> 15 states have heat advisories from the midwest to the mid-atlantic. 95 in kansas city. 94 in chicago and indianapolis.
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91 in omaha. new orleans will be 96. former government employee shirley sherrod is back home in georgia this morning after a week of controversy. president obama phoned her yesterday to personally apologize three days after she was forced to resign over an internet video made her appear to be racist. the president urged her to accept a new job helping the agriculture department address discrimination, but sherrod says she was not convinced. >> to be the fall guy and have everyone think that i am responsible for ridding the agency of discrimination. because it's there, so much of it there, and it's going to stake a concerted effort, a real effort by many, many people from the top down, and some of them from the bottom up. >> in the interview coming up today on "good morning america," president obama says he is reminding his staff not to react too quickly to media postings like the one involving sherrod, but to take time and think the issues through.
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in oklahoma, two people have died in the crash of a medical helicopter. the chopper was on its way from oklahoma city to pick up a patient at a hospital 90 miles away. the bodies of the two victims were found in the wreckage. a third passenger was found about 50 yards away, injured but alive. in wyoming's grand teton national park, rescue workers have recovered the body of a hiker who fell from a cliff during a severe thunderstorm. three separate climbing parties called for help during wednesday's storm. fierce lightning injured 16 climbers. a sudden surge of methane gas may have caused last spring's deadly explosion inside a west virginia coal mine. 29 men died at massey energy's upper big branch mine in april. a massey official says readings show twice as much methane as usual was present on the day of that blast. the company suggested that a crack in the mine's floor could have been the source of that gas. those popular mail-in dna tests are getting disturbing results of their own. a federal sting found consumers who take the test are receiving
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information that can be misleading or just wrong. here's abc's dr. richard besser. >> reporter: do the tests that promise to predict your future, your risk for cancer, for other diseases, for less than $1,000. but the investigation found the results consumers get back to these tests are often misleading, and in certain cases downright wrong. investigators swabbed the cheeks of volunteers and sent the dna samples to four different companies. 68% of the time, the results from the companies didn't line up. different results from different companies. >> for prostate cancer i had different companies tell me i was below average, average, and above average risk. >> reporter: the report also raises concerns about how these companies market. listen as this undercover consumer asks if she can secretly send in her fiance's dna and surprise him with the results. >> i thought it would be an awesome gift to give my fiance his dna tested with mine. >> oh, yeah, that would be great. >> okay, as long as i can get
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the vial of saliva somehow, i can send it in, you can test it for me? >> absolutely. >> that kind of secret testing is illegal in at least 29 states. >> so that clip was from your company, and that is against your policy, right? >> that is against our policy. >> we agree that it's not acceptable to get the different results and that we need standards. >> reporter: the fda has the authority to regulate these tests and i spoke with them and they will be taking action in the coming months. for now, any consumer who's interested in personal genetic testing, i would only do it under the guidance of a doctor or genetic counselor. there is a test available that will provide very useful information about your genetic risk and it's free. the family history. if you go to abcnews.com, find out how to do that test. richard besser, abc news, new york. >> interesting story here. a man who wants to help people in remote locations now has the vehicle to get there. steven saint is traveling from florida, wisconsin, in his flying car. it looks like a dune buggy with
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a propeller but it can deploy a parachute at 40 miles an hour and take off. >> saint grew up in the amazon where his father was a missionary. he says he saw how hard it was to get medical help there. he expects the car to sell for $80,000. i hope it does. we'll be right back. n honking. a short time ago, this woman suffered from around his house. these people chose freedom over restrictions. independence over limitations. they chose mobility. they chosehe scooter store. and this is the team of mobility experts who made it all happen. ii great news, you've been approved for payment. dr. cruz, i'm calling on behalf ofmarie stanford.
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and they can make it happen for you. hi, i'm doug harrison, if you're living with limited mobility, call the scooter store today. i promise, no other company will work harder to make you mobile or do more to ensure your total satisfaction. i expected they'd help me file some paperwork with medicare and my insurance. i never expected them to be so nice or work so hard to get me a power chair at no cost to me. if we qualify you and medicare denies your claim for a w scooter or power chair, i'll give it to you absolutely free. that's the scooter store guarantee. we'll wo with your insurance company, even help with financing. if there's a way, we'll find it. when they delivered mom's power chair, i expected they'd show her how to use it once or twice. that man stayed for hours! whatever it takes, as long as it takes. that's our guarantee. why do we go to < uch great lengths?
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ouch! ow! oops! it's neo to go!® ready. aim. protect. neosporin® gives you infection-protection, and pain relief. neo to go!® plus pain relief. every cut. every time. everywhere. in most cases, videos that go viral are ones that we can laugh at. but this is a story of one video that is anything but a laughing matter. >> an 11-year-old girl posted online the anguish cyber bullying had put her through, and now police are investigating. andrea canning had more. >> reporter: it's the tween
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tirade that's gone viral. >> it's jesse slaughter here and this is to all you [ bleep ] haters. >> reporter: turning 11-year-old jesse slaughter into an overnight online celebrity. >> okay, because you hater bitches, you're just jealous of me. you're saying you're jealous of me because, one, i'm more pretty than you, i have more friends, more people like me, i have more fans. yeah, i know that. >> i never thought it would go to this point. >> reporter: slaughter, her screen name, can be seen lashing out against her so-called online haters in a series of web videos. >> just shut your mouth before you make a fool of yourself again. >> reporter: what could cause a girl just 11 years old to feel so hated she had this virtual melt-down? >> i am having an emotional breakdown one after another. i am crying my eyes out and you haven't noticed that. >> reporter: speaking only to
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abc news, slaughter, alongside her parents, gene and diane, say she used the videos to retaliate after people started posting lies about her on social networking sites. how this nasty back and forth began is still unclear. some say she is the one who started it. one website pointed out that she tweeted i love drama days before her video went viral. slaughter denies she instigated anything and maintains she's the victim. confronted by posts like these poking fun at her makeup and her looks. that's one washed-up looking 11-year-old. >> i'll put some [ bleep ] in the [ bleep ]. >> reporter: her series of explosive outbursts only continue to attract more attention. >> why so much profanity in the videos? >> it's just -- i had no words running through my mind. it was all done live. and it was just a way to get out my anger. >> reporter: anger that slaughter's dad unleashed in his own rant. >> this is from her father. you bunch of lying, no-good punks. i know who it's coming from
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because i've back-traced it and i know who's e-mailing and who's doing it and you're being reported to the cyber police and the state police. from her father. [ bleep ]. and if you come near my daughter, guess what, consequences will never be the same. >> as a father, i was just trying to support my daughter and get people to stop hating. >> to respond to someone who bullies you is totally counterproductive. because it incites your bully or other bullies to bully you even more. >> reporter: now the popular videos have spawned a series of parodies. >> consequences will never be the same! >> reporter: there's even t-shirts and mugs for sale with some of her father's now infamous phrases, like consequences will never be the same, and you dun goofed. the family says it's no joke, claiming to receive dozens of
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threatening phone calls and e-mails every day. >> when this first started we were very afraid. >> i've been getting a lot of death threats. >> online, people accuse me of molesting my daughter. >> reporter: investigation is now under way by florida police who released this statement saying, our detectives are looking into what could amount to a cyber stalking or cyber bullying case. if we find evidence we will pursue suspects. slaughter said she was even sent to a mental health facility after the authorities believed she might be suicidal. she's adamant she's not but believes it's this kind of taunting that could push a teen over the edge. cyber bullying is on the rise and has driven some teens to suicide, like megan myer and phoebe prince, who faced constant harassment through texts, e-mails and social networking sites. >> this out of control has reached epidemic proportions. kids just really need to stop this. so many children are turning to suicide as an alternative, just to get rid of their pain. and that's not right.
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>> i think that's completely wrong that people would taunt somebody to some degree they would actually kill themselves. that's actually completely wrong and whoever is doing it should be locked away for a really long time over it. >> reporter: up next for jesse slaughter, counseling for her anger. while her parents believe she is the victim here, they acknowledge she needs help dealing with her tirades. >> the big [ bleep ] all those haters. >> reporter: they have no plans to make her log off any time soon. i'm andrea canning in palm coast, florida. >> wow. when we come back this morning, palin and kate plus 8. sarah palin and kate gosselin are going camping. and the real juicy one, julianne hough explains why she never thought she was ryan seacrest's type.
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welcome back, everybody. there's been all this talk, we talked about it last week, bristol and levi getting engaged and maybe shopping around a reality series. it appears sarah palin may have beaten her daughter and future son-in-law to the punch here. apparently kate and her small village of children are going up to alaska for a visit, as part of that visit sarah palin's going to go camping with the family as part of the reality show "kate plus 8." apparently sarah's father, a retired science teacher, and sarah's brother, a third grade teacher, are going to have natural history lessons with the kids and all that kind of stuff. palin's family outing with kate gosselin and the kids. i'm not sure how that furthers a possible run for the presidency. sarah will be joining kate. >> it certainly does seem like if you're going to go to alaska, she is the person you would be visiting. right? >> she is the one rock star. yeah. >> i hadn't realized kate gosselin had that kind of billing when you consider it right now.
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>> hey, anything on the campaign trail, right? >> maybe the kids will learn how to make moose chili. okay. this is the one sentence i'm sure ryan seacrest never wanted to hear from his girlfriend, julianne hough. she thought her boyfriend, ryan seacrest, was gay before they started dating. ouch. >> why would she say that publicly? >> it wasn't really publicly. the rumor was that she was in north carolina, in town for her birthday dinner, turning 22 years old. she's out with a bunch of friends and one of the friends said, how did you and ryan get together? she responds, he was actually after me since i was 18 but he totally wasn't my type, i thought he was gay. >> really. >> yes. she says after a few years he was just so persistent she went out with him on a date and she realized how much she liked him. now they're saying the relationship has only been a couple of months but they're apparently getting hot and heavy. there's been pictures of them making out on yachts and traveling. >> all right, go get it. all right, yeah. >> there's a lot of other women also but i see why she thought that. i think we all see why she might have thought that. >> why? i don't get it.
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it's always rumors -- >> oh, please, yes, you do. >> i don't look like a guy like that. why? jim, what do you think? do you think so? >> jim's silent on that. >> jim's saying yes. all right, well, okay. hopefully he won't be -- make it happen, keep it through. anyway, another side note, brad and angelina. the tabloids can be so cruel and put out mean stuff about folks. there was a tabloid out "news of the world" back in january had a report that said these two are splitting up, they never retracted it, never apologized for it. now of course it's not true. they've come to a big settlement, undisclosed in terms of how much money. brangelina settled, they are together, happily of course, details on how much money they got from the tabloid was not disclosed and they did not attend the hearing where this was decided in court but they are going to get some money out of the deal for saying that this lovely couple was in fact on the rocks. >> they battled the media and they won? >> and they won. a lot of stars do that and they win. this is the latest example. they fought back and won. >> all right, we've got much
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more news coming up and i'll talk to you about ryan seacrest. >> break that down for me. >> i'll diagram it for you. if you fight to sleep in the middle of the night,
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why go one more round ? you don't need a rematch, but a rethink. with lunesta. lunesta is thought to interact with gaba receptors associated with sleep. lunesta helps you get the restful sleep you need. lunesta has some risk of dependency. when taking lunesta, don't drive or operate machinery until you feel fully awake. walking, eating, driving or engaging in other activities while asleep without remembering it the next day have been reported. abnormal behaviors may include aggressiveness, agitation, hallucinations, or confusion. in depressed patients, worsening of depression, including risk of suicide, may occur. alcohol may increase these risks. allergic reactions such as tongue or throat swelling occur rarely and may be fatal. side effects may include unpleasant taste, headache, dizziness, and morning drowsiness. stop fighting with your sleep. ask your doctor if lunesta is right for you.
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get lunesta for a co-pay as low as zero dollars at lunesta.com discover a restful lunesta night. here some are stories to watch today on abc news. the ships at the gulf coast oil well site head for port as tropical storm bonnie bears down on the area. the cap on the well itself is being kept in place. a new report out today from the government's so-called pay czar finds that big wall street banks paid out nearly $1.6 billion in unwarranted bonuses during the height of the financial crisis. and a ceremony to mark the retirement of general stanley mcchrystal takes place this evening. he was fired last month as the u.s. commander in afghanistan for making comments critical of the obama administration. and finally this half hour, another one of those why didn't i think of that kind of stories. we've all heard about iphone 4's reception problems, and many users say when you hold the phone like, this it's what they
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call the death grip, if you hold it like this with your hand that it leads to all these dropped calls. >> even steve jobs admits there is a problem. last week he announced apple will give out free bumpers to fix that signal issue. >> but two new york designers came up with a different solution. it's supposed to be a joke but now they say it's really beginning to stick. >> antennagate. >> we were watching steve jobs give the press conference about the antenna issues with the iphone 4. >> they were seeing a large drop in bars. >> after it wrapped up we were talking about the whole problem, they should just put a band-aid on it. as quickly as possible threw together a website, put up a store, went from there. originally it came up as a joke. >> definitely a joke. but we meant to have a product. >> then we thought, this could actually work. >> the problem with the iphone is this area on the lower left corner, if it's covered up by your hand, you may experience
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reception issues. our idea was to just cover that area up and it seems to improve the problem sometimes. >> we never expected to get this many orders. >> no, we thought we would sell maybe a couple hundred. at this point it's been a couple thousand. >> we definitely wanted people to be able to put on a phone and, you know, for some people it may help with reception issues, to insulate that part of the phone. some people think it's really cute. a lot of people want them on their phones. >> it is cute. >> it's not bad at all. >> certainly is a cheap solution to everything and an immediate one. if you want to find a link to the antenna website logon to our facebook page. speaking of facebook we're marking a major milestone here at "world news now." >> it's a very cool one. facebook achieved 500 million users. "world news now" has more than 18,000 fans on facebook. we launched this page way back when president obama was inaugurated. since then it is the hot place to be for all you insomniacs. >> wnnfans.com.
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